Bob Lutz.Bob Lutz appeared recently on local talk radio, and floated a new idea: raising the gasoline tax by 25 cents per year to get people to buy electrically powered vehicles. The idea, according to Lutz is simple, we must conserve fuel to gain energy independence, and energy self-sufficiency is difficult to achieve unless the mobile sector adopts electric drive. “It’s the right way to go from a national security and technology standpoint,” he said. Under his plan, gasoline that is $3.85 per gallon this year would be $4.05 next year, and $4.30 the year after. By the end of a decade, gasoline would be $2.50 per gallon higher than it was at the beginning.

In a Heartbeat is a local-access cable show hosted by friend and former colleague John Clor that originates in Grosse Pointe, MI, and is available to Comcast and AT&T Uverse viewers in the area. John graciously asked the Editor to appear on the show to discuss the Chevy Volt (read the TVD review here). Enjoy the show, despite the fact that Mr. Sawyer mistakenly said the Volt uses the same turbocharged 1.4-liter engine as the Chevy Cruze on which it is based. (It uses a non-turbocharged version of the same engine.) With luck, he'll be more accurate the next time, and won't have to endure so many beatings...

Nissan's LEAF: coming to Tennessee.Although the Detroit 3 have certainly made some significant strides of late in terms of gaining market share, not only in light of the issues—real and imagined—that Toyota has faced, as well as the less-than-robust sales performance of Honda, it is still worth noting that more than half of the U.S. car market is made up of non-domestic brands, both Asian and European.

While that should give management at the Detroit 3 pause, they’ve probably gotten used to this state of affairs and so bumping along in the ~47% of market is not much of a surprise to them. And what ought to make them take deep breaths is the undeniable fact that Toyota is making concerted efforts to repolish its tarnished image in the market, and if this gets all bright and shiny—and I wouldn’t bet against it—then the Detroit 3 really have some reason for concern.